A qualitative Natech damage scale for the impact of floods on selected industrial facilities

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that natural disasters can trigger technological accidents and damage. These so-called Natech accidents can pose a significant risk to regions that are unprepared for responding to them. The European Commission's Joint Research Centre has recognised the risk associated with Natech events and has started systematic research into Natechs and their underlying dynamics. This work investigates the risk associated with the flooding of industrial installations through an analysis of past case histories and using expert judgement. The potential impact of three levels of flood severity on selected industrial facilities storing and/or processing (eco-)toxic, flammable or explosive materials is analysed qualitatively and a scale is developed that links the flood intensity to the level of potential damage. Our analysis indicates that natural disasters have the potential for triggering hazmat releases and other types of technological accidents. Hence, natural disasters should be considered as separate accident-triggering events in the planning, design and operating stages of industrial facilities that process or store hazardous substances. Our work revealed a lack of detailed information on the occurrence of Natech events which indicates not necessarily a scarcity of Natechs but rather a lack of standardised reporting and record keeping.

Anatomy of cascading natural disasters in Japan: main modes and linkages

“…In most available 153 research databases, natural disasters are recorded as single independent events, making it 154 difficult to investigate any relationships connecting these natural hazards. Moreover, as many 155 researchers have pointed out, the lack of internationally standardised reporting and record 156 keeping is a major hindrance (Krausmann 2008;Wirtz 2014 understanding of these events, since the newspaper reports can be influenced by speculation 176 about the cause of disasters which had not been fully determined at the time the article was 177 published. To overcome these shortcomings, the study also drew on formal documents and 178 online resources and utilised research reports from research institutes and articles in 179 domestic/international academic journals to establish that it is likely that a causal relationship 180 exists between the apparently cascading events under consideration.…”

Development of generic scenarios of industrial accidents triggered by floods: a first step toward decreasing the vulnerability of industrial facilities

“…The lack of standardized reporting and record keeping of Natechs makes it very difficult to find completed data on the causes, the evolution and the potential consequences of these events. Therefore, several analyses of accidents triggered by floods reported in the major industrial accident databases have been done in order to understand the dynamics of these events [4,9].…”

“…For the purpose of this article, we will only be considering the critical equipment presented in table 1, representing some of the equipment proposed by ARAMIS and corresponding to the equipment categories most frequently damaged by floods according to studies of past accidents [9]. Studies on past accidents triggered by floods [4,[9][10][11]] also show that depending on levels of flood severity, flood water can induce different categories of structural damage to critical equipment. Therefore, building on the French land-use planning for the flood-prone areas (in French: PPRi: Plan de Prévention du Risque inondation) that produced intensity scales for the flood hazard, we divided the flood hazard severity into three classes: low, intermediate and high.…”

“…This is why the JRC (Joint Research Center Ispra, Italy) has launched a special Natech database that helps to improve the understanding of the causes, the evolution and the potential consequences of Natech events [4].…”

“…A recent study [4] proved that, among natural hazards, floods have the potential of causing technological disasters by initiating severe accidental scenarios. Consequently, floods should be studied as separate accident-triggering events in a process industry.…”